I decided that with the recent election coming our way next week, I would blog about this topic that I find to be unbelievable interesting. As this article shows, the limited voting that is put into place by convicted felons could be a big swing vote for the election. What startles me the most, is looking back at the Bush v. Gore election in 2000. The article states, "Florida's laws preventing convicted felons from voting meant that some 750,000 people, including those still in prison, on probation or parole, didn't get a say in who would be president. Since the election was decided by 537 votes, Abramsky estimates that if just 1% of the disenfranchised felon population had voted, 60% to 40% for Al Gore over George W. Bush, Gore would have won." A professor in the Sociology department here, Chris Uggen has been doing research on this topic for a very long time. And according to his research, the fact that in some states felons can't vote could definitely be missing a majority of votes in America. I find this to be amazing and at the same time concerning. Should we let convicted felons vote? Do they have the right to speak out for the country that they live in, despite their criminal record? This is something that can long be debated and looked at. Interesting stuff I must say.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/12/if-convicted-felons-could-vote.html
This is a very interesting blog and it opened my eyes a lot. So thank you! I had never realized that by not allowing convicted felons to vote, the outcome of an election may change. It is my personal belief that everyone should have the right to vote, since the US is supposed to have equal rights for all. In terms of the voter ID controversy, if a voter ID becomes required, this will make it difficult for the elderly and military to vote too. Many of these rules of who can and cannot vote have an enormous impact on the results of elections, so this topic needs to be discussed more.
Indeed this topic is very interesting. I find it even more interesting because most of the convicted felons of the US are African American or Latino. Recent studies have shown that most African Americans and Latino's tend to vote Democrat if they vote at all. I believe that if some how felons were allowed to vote we would see a predominately Democratic influence in our government, but I could be wrong. However, it may be it is still very very interesting. I am interested on your take for the voter ID amendment which restricts military ID's as being a form of proper identification?
This is an interesting topic. First, I did not know that felons do not have the right to vote. In my opinion, they should vote. Even though, they might be prisoners and not live free, they have family and by voting they can make a change in their family.